For this season, the American will feature Louisville, Rutgers, Connecticut, Cincinnati, South Florida and Temple, all holdovers from the Big East, and UH, SMU, Memphis and Central Florida from Conference USA.

The changes will continue next year, with Louisville (ACC) and Rutgers (Big Ten) set to leave and East Carolina, Tulsa and Tulane joining from C-USA to give the American 11 all-sports schools. Navy will join as a football-only member in 2015.

UH men's basketball coach James Dickey, baseball coach Todd Whitting and Buchanan said Monday that membership in the American will provide a recruiting advantage, with an increase in television exposure from games shown on ESPN, ABC and CBS.

"It's an exciting move," Dickey said. "What's going to be important is the television exposure. That enhances our recruiting."

The American has an automatic-qualifying spot in the Bowl Championship Series in 2013 but is not among the five so-called power conferences and must compete with Conference USA, the Mountain West, the Mid-American and Sun Belt for one guaranteed spot in a major bowl when the College Football Playoff begins in 2014.

And unlike the SEC, Big 12, ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12, which pay out an average of about $20 million per school in TV and other conference revenue, the Cougars can expect a modest $2 million annually.

The biggest immediate challenge for UH: changing signage on facilities around campus.

The school has identified the areas that need to be changed from the C-USA to American logo, including the court at Hofheinz Pavilion, and work is expected to begin in the near future, an athletic spokesman said.

There also are plans for UH to put two custom-made flags with the American logo on cranes at the construction site for the new on-campus football stadium.